daemonduality

[daemonduality]

@mushroompollution

Finally free. Party still going on?

[daemonduality]

You can notice someones love for you in their dishes and how patiently they cook you food.

[daemonduality]

Well. I'm back home. The thirteen hour flight nearly killed me, but I don't want to risk teleporting with a piece of god in my luggage.

There is a piece of god in my luggage. Ugh. I can't believe I made that sentence.

It's only a finger, but it's still disturbing. I'll be giving it to the Angels in the morning.

[daemonduality]

...so Chi was setting aside a piece of food from the stalls she's been eating at in Tsukiji Market. And I thought it's just her habit of hoarding food, but then she would start eating it afterwards.

When I asked, she went [ I am eating for Leo. ].

I don't know why, but my brain went to chinese dramas and how pregnant ladies state they are eating for two. Even though I know we have a perfectly good Leo here on Tunglr to explain this.

And then I started wondering where do Blank Canvases come from?

I'm probably better off not thinking about it.

[daemonduality]

Connection seems very bad for some reason.

Sato and Levant went to the KC Gala, which will last 3 days. Today is day 2. Apparently, it's to celebrate the game Legendary Heroes, which is a full-dive MMO, so it feels like you are in the game. It's a game about an apocalyptic world and you are a meta-human with military training. There's apparently a storyline, but it's mostly a tutorial. The point of the game is to conquer the world.

The gala is awarding people for top PVPwes, most territory conquered, etc. KC is giving generous money prizes and even property and the offer to work at KC officially. Gozaburo Kaiba is awarding the players personally.

They also want to release an Augmented Reality version of the game too - to join real life with the virtual world. There were rumors of KC developing solid holograms, but they haven't been able to get it to work so far.

A bit of a concerning rumor is the "Girl in Red." Apparently, she's been there since the game's inception near a large lake and cathedral. The building she's in unlike the others is inaccessible, but people can see glimpses of her inside in the morning. The building looks like the Inn at home, so naturally I suspect this is where Chi is when she's "dreaming."

Enough about KC though. I trust that Sato and Lev will be good at that front.

[daemonduality]

Chi's menaces took over the track and field for a couple days and through a series of increasingly escalating events ended up getting the school temporarily closed and a police car and tank totaled, though all that latter stuff happened after I sent you the message.

Is there something going on with you that you haven't been around? Something wrong m

@drcgcnfly

I feel like in the interest of fairness I should also go bother you about not being aware of this mess also.

But at the same time it's not your hellions causing a mess.

[daemonduality]

I've been keeping up with the news happening at Chi's and Ava's school. And there's quite a bit of property damage but nowhere near what could've been, given the circumstances.

And now the BCs are in custody, handcuffed and everything - courtesy of the only officer there with a brain cell or maybe understands very small children.

---

So what happened was that police officers raid a school looking for BCs but makes the mistake of leaving the keys in the ignition.

Several of the BCs, including Lettuce, commandeer a police car, presumably from underground since the news crew filming didn't catch them. And at first, the BCs are revving the engine, playing with the sirens, and honking the horn incessantly for several minutes. This occurs with the auditory background of "Get out of the car!" and "Stop or we'll shoot!" and "Who didn't lock their car?"

You can see the moment the BCs figure out how to switch the transmission because the car suddenly reverses into a statue of Gotham Academy's founder and then slowly starts to accelerate in the opposite direction - like it's stuck in "L / low gear". So the police start their low speed chase through the school grounds with the BC car driving erratically and occasionally clipping things.

All the while, they bring in the SWAT vans and the tank they had into the school grounds to chase.

The BC car eventually figures out the D/ Drive on the transmission and suddenly goes full speed into the school wall with such force that Lettuce visibly flies out but sinks into the ground. I'm thinking the others stayed put from where they flew out or stayed in the car that's now on fire, given that the police started yelling to "Get on the ground" and "We have a tank. And we will fire!"

In typical BC fashion, they don't cooperate. But it seems the police are hesitant to fire, probably out of self-preservation as they've noticed their quarry to be exceptionally durable.

Someone starts screaming. The camera pans over to the tank who has its military driver suddenly crawl out of it.

I'm pretty sure someone shat themselves when they saw the tank's barrel start moving. And people were visibly ducking as the barrel spun around in a 360.

Then the tank started accelerating into the school wall at full speed and causes part of the wall to collapse. The tank is totaled from the fallen masonry, and after several failed attempts to get it to move, Lettuce emerges from the top of the tank. Lettuce and other BCs stop to stare at their newly broken toy.

One of the older-looking police officers, probably inspired, starts gathering handcuffs from his fellow officers - and nervously walked up to the track field. He then just tossed the cuffs to them. And the BCs start picking them up and, one by one, started swinging them like a t-shirt.

I'm guessing inspired by this the cop demonstrates putting on the handcuffs himself - and then starts bringing his wrists together and then apart, making a clinking sound over and over- which got the BCs very excited. So you have a bunch of BCs that handcuffed themselves and mimicking the cop and making a lot of annoying clinking noises.

Eventually, he coaxed them to go into a SWAT van.

---

Later on, I learned the tank was thankfully not armed in the first place, hence why they only had one person man it.

Hopefully, the cop will distract them long enough for the BCs to stay in jail.

Or maybe the jail will be their new hangout.

Huh. Now I'm starting to feel kinda sorry for the police.

[daemonduality]

@drcgcnfly

I feel like in the interest of fairness I should also go bother you about not being aware of this mess also.

But at the same time it's not your hellions causing a mess.

[daemonduality]

So the kids are in the Inn today. Apparently they were evacuated overnight because of the "terrorist threat", and no one informed Sato, Lev, or me. What the heck are they doing at that school?

And I also had to give the kids a dressing down because it seems like no one else is doing it. Chi, for not being more aware of things that are literally happening next to her dorm. And Hannah and Aeria for just choosing to watch the fireworks and not tell anyone. This could've been stopped. Easily. With just a casual "i heard if you throw food somewhere nearby, you can lure them away. "

And yeah sure, though this may have happened eventually because BCs look like Potato by default, it didn't have to happen in the school.

Now we have men in military fatigues, a tank, several SWAT cars, police officers in the middle of the city when there's chaos elsewhere.

What's worse is that they emptied the school. BCs tend to go where there's not much foot traffic. So they were probably confined to the track and field because no one's using it in winter. Now that they've evacuated the school, they've effectively given them free reign over it.

Ugh. I sent an anonymous tip about the eating tips, but who knows if they'll employ it. Hopefully nothing goes wrong, and they'll just see them as stupid, harmless critters.

[daemonduality]

"No, but if you're dead-set on wanting to cook the most delicious things for friends and family," Mirielle said with a shrug , "it helps."

She nods her head at Ava's explanation about her inconvenient heating abilities. That's pretty fast come to think of it, even for normal. "Well, eggs are probably one of the most heat-sensitive ingredients you'll have to deal with. Everything else tends to be more tolerant."

The redhead smiled playfully at Ava's suggestion about the mega-egg. "We could try it if you want. It'll probably look ugly, but it won't change the taste much. They might cook more unevenly if you put too many in, so you might get some eggs more cooked either. So there's a sweet spot."

"It's better to put the egg somewhere else. Otherwise, they might end up conjoined together," Mirielle explained as she watches Ava consider where to put her target.

Ava shrugs, not really sure what to tell Mirielle. It was fine to her, usually the jobs that most of them would have taken provided meals anyways, so it wasn't like they were truly just sending all of the kids out with nothing. They just really were not usually going to be cooking for themselves, and that was the simple truth of the matter. "D'ya really need cooking school to have fun and make things, though?" From what Odin had told her, that answer was no generally. People liked cooking for any number of reasons, and most of them did not go to any sort of specialty school for it.

"I'll try my best," She says with a giggle, fairly confident that she's not going to cook a full egg unless it remains in constant contact with her. Parts of it might get a little cooked if she isn't careful, but most of them should be fine. "Usually I gotta be holding onto it for a while, depending on how freaked out I am. At my worst it'd probably only take a few seconds to a minute, but normally? Maybe a minute or two."

Ava blinks, looking down at the bowl of eggs and then back up. "...Couldn't we just make one big poached egg?" There was probably some sort of art to this that she just was not grasping, as Ava would have immediately tried to do a mega-egg.

As soon as Mirielle starts her demonstration, Ava is hovering at the other's side, eyes glued to the plate and then to the wok. It seemed simple enough, and she happily takes the plate when it is handed to her. "Should I aim to pour it into a different area from where the one you put in is? Or should I just put it in?"

[daemonduality]

...Eh. I got some random activity from a photo over 3 years ago. Okay, then.

Looking at the chat about fish.

I personally prefer salmon. And I adore grilling the salmon skin. It's a very nice crunchy snack.

Flounder's a nice fish too. I'm not as fond of tuna compared to the others. Not sure why, even though tuna steaks are delicious.

[daemonduality]

Real

[daemonduality]

Something enormous. That was what she was sensing right now.

She couldn't see it - and probably better that way. Things that enormous were either Eldritch or the "not to be known" unless she didn't want her sanity anymore.

It was like a ghost - something intersecting with her and the rest of the universe. Two things in the same exact space - thankfully, without the physical consequences.

It was like an enormous boat making ripples on the water, its sheer movement causing this universe - a tiny boat in comparison - to shake.

It was like a pressure. A mountain crushing everything undernea-

[ It is a Blank Canvas. ]

She turned her head up to face Chi who was standing over her, tablet in hand. The oppressing sensation she felt was immediately more bearable - even receding off her body.

And then she processed that statement.

Blank Canvas. It was a name that Levant used for the strange dark child-shaped creatures that followed Chi around like ducklings. But Chi never once used the name - always called them Liliums instead.

Everyone figured Lilium was probably the real name of these creatures, but "BC" was so catchy that they never bothered to change it. And Chi or the other BCs didn't seem to mind, much like how Chi doesn't mind people calling her Lils or Chi.

For her to be calling something a Blank Canvas now...

[ It thought it could die here because it can sense the Empty. But it now knows this is not Empty. So it will go elsewhere. ]

She watched as Chi held a hand up to her.

Wait, when did she end up on the floor?

[ So you do not need to be worried. ]

--

...Chi telling her not be worried always made her more worried.

[daemonduality]

What the fuck is that?

[daemonduality]

For the cooking contest basic skills audition, we were supposed to cook a steak medium-rare.

So my choice of steak was the thickest slab of Prime beef I could fine.

The thick steak allows me to develop a sear on the outside before the inside gets a chance to overcook. And after picking out the steak, 90% of the battle was won.

---

The judges came by my table and asked me if I was a professional. I'm not.

I just told them that I work as a private cook to feed my boss, her girlfriend, and a bunch of kids. Before that, I worked as an apprentice at a Chinese restaurant.

Renora, the food critic, was scarfing down my steak and complained about why I finished so fast. Because if I cooked slower, after she is forced to eat bad steak from the other auditioners, she'll have something to look forward to. And she then asked jokingly to the other judges if she can dock points from me for not considering the judges' suffering.

David just rolled his eyes - and just gave me a pass for this section right there - "faithful to the basics" were exact words. I think he's the boss of the judges from the looks of it.

Fabian just gave me a thumbs up while eating half of the steak unlike Renora who ate everything.

I hope they have big stomachs cause that's 100 bites of steak just for this hall alone.

---

I've mostly observed the mistakes from the others while I was cooking my steak.

One mistake is to choose a thin steak. Unless you're really good at controlling the heat, you're more likely to get a well-done steak rather than a medium-rare.

Some did not pay attention to the time and forgot to rest the steak after cooking. Resting is essentially the process where the steak reabsorbs its lost fluids, which makes it juicier. Salt helps with that.

Some tried to use high-heat cooking with butter. The judges didn't even bother eating the steak. The butter burned, and I could smell the acrid undertones from my place in the contest.

[daemonduality]

D --> Here I am with a shirt on

((Art by @yifftwiceplz !))

[daemonduality]

D --> Here I am with a shirt on

((Art by @yifftwiceplz !))